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ADDRESS 



New York State Republican Reform League 



FOLLOWED BY * 



THE THIRD-TERM QUESTION 

BY 

Hon. MATTHEW HALE 

AND 

THE REPUBLIC AND THE PRESIDENCY 

BY 

Honorable A. N. COLE 

Reprinted from the National Quarterly Review 
for April, 1880 



NEW YORK 
THOMPSON & MOREAU, PRINTERS, 51 & 53 MAIDEN LANE 

1880 



E^^ 



ADDRESS. 

New York State Republican Reform League, 

Headquabters, 34 Park Eow, New York City, 

May 20th, 1880. 

Recent events, the particulars of which need not be entered 
upon, having to some degree engendered in the public mind 
an impression that the organization known as the New York 
State Republican Reform League has other objects in view, 
than the upbuilding, strengthening and perpetuation of the 
Republican party, there would seem to be occasion for a full 
and free declaration on the part of its more immediate repre- 
sentatives, covering, so far as may be, the entire case. 

Under these circumstances, the subscribers, constituting the 
Executive Committee of the League, beg leave to say, that a 
knowledge of the causes combining to bring the organization 
into being, the elements composing it, together with the history 
of its rise, growth and development, are essential to an intelli- 
gent understanding of its work, aims and ultimate objects. This 
will necessitate the going back to the period of the inauguration 
of Ulysses S. Grant as President on the -Ith of March, 1869. It 
is something well known to most people, that large numbers of 
those earliest engaged in bringing into being the Republican 
party, doubted the wisdom of making General Grant can- 
didate for the Presidency at all. To these, the camp, the 
held and the schools of war were not regarded as the best and 
most wholesome educators for governors of a free people ; and, 
while all Republicans and thousands of patriotic Democrats 
admired, honored and respected General Grant, they looked 
nevertheless upon Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, William 
M. Evarts, and scores, not to say hundreds, of others, trained 
in civil alf airs, as better iitted than he for the Chief Magistracy 



of the Republic. But General Grant was the hero of the 
hour, and it was impossible at the time to stem the tide in his 
favor. He was accordingly nominated and elected, receiving 
the united support of all classes of Republicans. 

At the period of his inauguration, the party was united, 
determined and strong. But divisions soon arose, bitter feuds 
were engendered, and factions took tlie place of peace and 
union. Scarcely had General Grant been six months President 
when, from causes never explained or understood, there was 
begun a war upon certain chiefs in the party, having no 
parallel in the history of American politics. The inaugura- 
tion of changes in nearly all departments of the customs, 
postal and other branches of the service then took place, 
until scarcely a friend of Greeley, Chase and Fenton was 
found in office at the close of General Grant's first year 
as President. That discontent, dissatisfaction and disgust 
followed on the part of a large portion of the party, was 
natural. The wise and prudent policies of war, which had 
enabled the eminent soldier to surround himself with the 
best military talent of the nation, seemed to have deserted 
him when placed at the head of civil affairs. His eliief 
counsellors were taken from the ranks of those who had 
most axes to grind, and, in their grinding, manifestly eared 
more for their own political fortunes and fame, than for 
those of their party and country. That such a policy resulted 
in alienating large numbers from the party, need not be won- 
dered at. The entire patronage of the Government was 
bestowed with a view to building up one class of leaders, and 
the pulling down of another. So marked was this policy, 
and to sucli an extent was it carried, that one man, Senator 
Roscoe Conkling, was made substantially dictator in all things 
pertaining to the distribution of patronage. 

The scenes witnessed during the organization of the Legis- 
lature at Albany, on the incoming of the Presidential year of 
1872, can hardly be described. Suffice it to say, that what was 
believed to be a majority of upwards of twenty, on the part of 
the Greeley-Fentonians, was, through the presence at the State 
capital, on the first day of the new year, of nearly or quite all 



of the principal federal office-holders in the State, transformed 
into a minority. In briefly reviewing the political featnres 
of the juncture to which we refer, mention should not fail 
to be made of the steady encroachment on the ])art of the 
office-holding elements of the party, throughout the State. 
Local and general committees were created by machinery, 
who arrogated to themselves powers, and assumed authority 
at variance with popular rights within the party. All there 
was left of the grand old Republican party of 1856, '60, '64, 
and ''68, and of its millions of voters, had been transformed 
into a political machine, cunningly devised to advance the 
fortunes of individuals. 

That the memorable revolt of 1872— resulting in the nomi- 
nation of Horace Greeley for President — followed, was not 
only natural, but inevitable. That upwards of fifty thous- 
and life-long and earnest Republicans in this State alone 
joined in that revolt, is a fact well known to those into whose 
hands came the rosters by counties, towns, school and election 
districts throughout the State. Five thousand in New York, 
with an equal number in Kings, two thousand in St. Lawrence, 
eighteen hundred in Chautauqua, fifteen hundred in Allegany, 
and so on relatively all over the State made up an aggregate, 
as already stated, of more than fifty thousand. Despite all, 
this formidable revolt failed on account of desertion from the 
ranks of Democratic allies. Greeley was defeated, and, for the 
time being, his friends were apparently discomfited. This, 
however, was only seeming. The succeeding year found 
three or four hundred Liberals assembled in State Convention 
at Elmira, Republicans still, and yet, barely a majority in 
favor of making up the eclectic ticket, composed of Republi- 
cans and Democrats, that year elected. From that time until 
the close of the campaign of the year 18T4, when Samuel 
J. Tilden was elected Governor, defeating John A. Dix by 
a majority of fifty thousand, the doors had been shut by the 
Republican machine in the face of the malcontents, and 
due notice was given that, as regarded any grace, beyond 
the privilege of voting the Republican ticket when made 
by the machine, no liberal need apply. IS^or were the en- 



gineers of the machine, as a rule, in any measure convinced 
that it was either desirable or essential to the future of the 
Republican party, that the alienated and estranged Indepen- 
dents should further act with it. This was the trial hour for 
the Republican party in this State. Had the entire Liberal 
and Independent element then gone over to Tilden, there 
would have been no hope of recovery. Even as it was, fully 
two-thirds did so at that one election. This, however, pretty 
much ended the Liberal and Democratic alliance. During the 
succeeding year, 1875, fully thirty-five thousand of the fifty 
thousand Liberals took their place again in the ranks of the 
Republican party. It was during this latter year that work 
was renewed, and actively forwarded, entailing sacrifices of 
time and money, and resulting in the formation of the New 
York State Auxiliary of the National Reform League. The 
national organization was simply inchoate in character in most 
of the States ; however, such was its influence that it made 
itself felt at the Fifth Avenue Conference, held in the city of 
New York in the early spring of the succeeding Presidential 
year, as a most important factor in that gathering, influencing 
action not only at Cincinnati, but also up to the present time. 

It was during the Presidential campaign of 1876, that the 
League, organized on the plan of a State Committee of one hun- 
dred members, one for each county and forty at large, an Ex- 
ecutive Committee of twenty-five members, a correspondent 
in each town of the State, witli associates l)y school districts, 
and one in each ward of cities with associates by election dis- 
tricts, and well organized in nearly all of the counties with 
the exception of about ten, counting those of New York, 
Kings and Erie, and having imperfect organization there also, 
did a most important work, by bringing into harmonious 
action and accord the disaffected or anti-machine elements of 
the party, and embracing within its correspondence, associa- 
tion and membership, tens of thousands of the very best men 
of the State. 

On the committee of this State's Auxiliary were found 
the names of the following Republicans, not unknown to the 
people of our State : — Gen. Alexander S. Diven, Chairman 



of State Committee ; Hon. Bradford 11. Wood, Hon. Lemon 
Thompson, and Dr. John Swinburne, of Albany ; Dr. Nathan 
V. Hull, of Allegany ; Hon. Orlow W. Chapman and Mr. 
James H. Armstrong, of Broome ; Hon. T. M. Pomeroy, 
of Cayuga ; Hon. W. L. Sessions and Hon. Henry C. Lake, 
of Chautauqua ; Hon. Norman M. Allen, of Cattaraugus ; 
Hon. Horatio Ballard, of Cortland ; Hon. Norwood Bowne, 
of Delaware; Hon. Abiah W. Palmer and Hon. H. Gr. 
Eastman, of Dutchess ; Hon. John T. Hogeboom, of 
Columbia ; Hon. Monroe Hall, of Essex ; Hon. Wells S. 
Dickinson, of Franklin ; Mr. C. B. Thomson, of Genesee ; 
Captain C. W. Godard, A. N. Cole and Dr. S. S. Guy, and others, 
of Kings ; Hon. William M.AVhite, of Livingston ; Hon. William 
N. Emerson and Charles E. Fitch, Esq., of Monroe ; Hon. Ezra 
Graves, of Herkimer ; W. T. Manchester, Esq., of Madison ; 
Hon. Dan. H. Cole, of Orleans; Chancellor E. O. Haven, 
Silas Smith and James Geddes, of Onondaga : Hon. George 
B. Sloane and Hon De Witt C. Littlejohn, of Oswego ; Hon. 
L. Bradford Prince, of Queens ; Hon. Geo. F. Carman, of 
Suffolk; Hon. S. T. Hayt, of Steuben; Hon. Hobart Knim, 
of Schoharie ; Hon. Robert Loughran, of Ulster ; Charles St. 
John, Jr., of Orange; Gen. E. A. Merritt and Hon. A. B. 
James, of St. Lawrence ; Hon. Beman Brockway, of Jeffer- 
son ; Hon. Amos V. Smiley, of Lewis ; S. C. Cleveland, Esq., 
of Yates ; Gerrit Smith, Jr., of Ontario ; Gen. Lloyd Aspin- 
wall, General John Cochrane, Elwood E. Thorne, Hon. 
Thomas E. Stewart, Hon. Benjamin F. Manierre, Hon. Henry 
G. Stebbins, Hon. James R. Angel and others, of the City and 
County of New York ; Gen. James W. Husted and Dr. 
Henry Randall Waite, of Westchester, and several others, 
one hundred in all. Its Executive Committee, consisting of 
twenty-five members, was made up from the above list. 

At the close of the campaign, the books and records of the 
League were left in possession of the chairman of its Execu- 
tive Committee, by whom they have been held as cus- 
todian. In the meantime, at a meeting of the State Com- 
mittee, held at the St. Nicholas Hotel in the city of New 
York, in the month of December, 1876, and largely attended, 



J 



6 

a resolution was passed empowering the Chairman and 
Secretary of the Executive Committee to take such action, 
from time to time, as might be found necessary to continue 
the work of the League ; and thus it was that, from the close 
of the campaign of 1876 to the opening of the Presidential 
year of 1880, the corresj^ondence and work of the organiza- 
tion were kept up and continued almost wholly by the Chair- 
man of its Executive Committee. 

Head-quarters again being opened the first week in Janu- 
ary of the present year, the work of reorganization was begun 
by dropi^ing the name and form of a national league, and 
adopting that of the New York State Republican Reform 
League ; a majority of the members of its Executive, and a 
considerable portion of the State Committee, continuing to act. 
In response to letters, circulars and documents sent out during 
the first six weeks of the year, came assurances from all por- 
tions of the State, that the correspondents of the New York 
State Auxiliary of the National Reform League were generally 
inclined to act as correspondents of the organization now ex- 
isting. The organization thus becoming a league of corres- 
pondents and associates, put on, in its new life, the form of 
unity, nor has its Executive Committee taken any action, nor 
will it do so, not clearly authorized by the sentiment and 
concurrence of such correspondents and associates. The fol- 
lowing platform, or declaration of purposes, is the foundation 
of the League : 

SUFFRAGE. 

I. The persistent use of the best means for securing an honest 
and free exercise of the right of suffrage, to the end that every 
lawful vote may be cast without interference, discrimination or 
intimidation, and when cast shall be counted, believing that in 
the sacred guardianship of the ballot box is found the only 
guarantees of a good and permanent government. 

PRIMARIES AND ELECTIONS. 

II. The adoption of such measures in the conduct of primary 
elections as shall free them from improper influences, and shall 
best secure the unprejudiced expression of the popular will, and 



the best attainable choice of candidates for office, thereby pre- 
venting the machinery of party politics from becoming the 
enginery of corruption, and securing the nomination and election 
to office of capable, honest and incorruptible men. 

CIVIL SERVICE. 

III. The application to the conduct of the civil service of 
those business principles which shall secure therein stability, 
efficiency, honesty and economy ; opposition to any use of official 
power or patronage for private or party purposes, and the enforce- 
ment of the reasonable demand that holders, by appointment, of 
official positions, national. State, or local, shall not to the neglect 
of their proper official duties hold offices in political party organ- 
izations or in nominating conventions. 

THE JUDICIARY, THE LEGISLATIVE AND THE 
COMMON SCHOOLS. 

IV. The adoption of such measures as may be necessary in 
order to preserve the purity of the Judiciary ; guard against the 
demoralizing effects of special and class legislation ; and secure 
the integrity of our common school system. 

FEDERAL AUTHORITY IN THE STATES. 

V. The protection of all citizens in the free exercise of their 
constitutional rights, by the exercise of Federal power if neces- 
sary ; sustaining firmly national supremacy in national matters. 

THE NATIONAL CREDIT. 

VI. A firm adherence to the use of such measures as shall 
secure and maintain the highest public credit at home and abroad, 
honest money, and an honest dollar for all alike, and the refund- 
ing of the national debt into bonds bearing the lowest rate of 
interest attainable. 

HOME INDUSTRIES AND FOREIGN COMMERCE. 

VII. The adoption of such a policy in the Customs Revenue 
as shall properly protect the home industries whose development 
is of national importance, while encouraging in other respects 
unrestricted commerce. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM. 

VIII. An amendment to the Federal Constitution providing 
either for a longer single Presidential term, or the intermission of 
at least one term before a President shall be eligible for reelection. 

NATIONAL POLICY IN INTERNAL AFFAIRS. 

IX. The pursuit by the Government of a wise and just inter- 
nal policy, which shall allay the bitterness of a struggle long 
since ended in an honorable peace ; respect the privileges of every 
citizen ; advance the best interests of all the States ; and cement 
the Union preserved in war, by kindling a spirit of patriotism 
which shall bind together the people of the whole land without 
regard to class, color, or geographical lines. 

A careful study of this platform will make it manifest 
that a single and longer term of the Presidency, or two terms, as 
now provided, of four years each, a term intervening before 
reelection, is a cardinal doctrine of the League. This provision 
is suggested from the fact, that the greatest abuses of power 
thus far exercised by individuals or parties, have come through 
the use and abuse of patronage on the part of an Executive in 
office. So alarming have become these encroachments, through 
the agencies of conclave and committee, as to largely, if not 
wholly, defy and defeat the will of the people. Though the 
Ilepul)lican Reform League then, has not been conducted, 
and will not be, as an anti-third-term or anti-Grant organiza- 
tion, its corres])ondence, nevertheless, coming from every 
section of the State, indicates a condition of things convincing 
any one who examines it, that to nominate General Grant, or 
any one else for a third term of the Presidency, would prove 
a most hazardous experiment. That it is impossible to carry 
New York for a third-term candidate, this correspondence 
completely demonstrates. The tone of public sentiment, as 
reflected in the press, and heard all over the land, makes it 
equally manifest that to renominate Grant would be simply 
to court defeat. His nomination, in fact, is only possible 
under the operation of the unit rule, enforced on the part, 
not of the State Conventions adopting it, since these have 



adjourned, but on tlie part of tlie National Convention 
itself. 

The operation of instructions, and enforcement of the unit 
rule, is a manifest usurpation of power on the part of conclave, 
caucus and committee, calculated to incite all free men to rise 
in revolt against it. Did no other abuse than this exist in 
the methods of parties, the overthrow and abrogation of tliis 
irrational and despotic exercise of political power on the part 
of an artiiicially, if not fraudulently, constructed majority, 
would call for the organization of the League. Neither in 
Pennsylvania, where the unit rule was adopted in State Con- 
vention, nor in New York, where instructions were given to 
the delegation to vote as a body for Grant, was there found 
an absence of causes, vitiating sucli j^roceedings. A con- 
siderable number of the delegates to Ilarrisburgh were chosen 
by local committees, while at Utica, entire delegations, chosen 
by frauds of the most liagrant character, were admitted, while 
others entitled to seats were rejected. An honestly constituted 
convention, either at Ilarrisbnrg or Utica, would never have 
voted instructions or adopted the unit rule. Several eminent 
members of the League hold seats on the delegation to Chicago, 
and these will gravely otfend against its most cardinal doctrine, 
that of the exercise of personal independence and political obli- 
gation to respect the will of immediate constituencies, should 
they fail at the vei-y outset at Chicago, to vote in favor of tlie 
principle more elaborately brought out in an article which ap- 
peared under the head of The Republic and the Presidency, in 
the April number of the National Quarterly Review. This 
article, as well as another on The Third-Term Question, l^y the 
Hon. Matthew Hale, also found in the Review, in a large degree 
reflects the sentiments of a majority t)f the correspondents and 
associates of the League. Upon one point more especially, we 
speak in conclusion. No one is, has been, or will be, authorized 
to speak for the Republican Reform League on the question 
of candidates. The League has no candidate, or candidates, 
nor will it have any. It is entirely devoted to tlie one 
end, of begetting a system of nominations which will 
faithfully reflect the popular will. Its correspondence 



10 

developes the fact tliat there are more RepubHcans in New 
York State in favor of the nomination of James G. Blaine 
than of any one whose name has been mentioned in connec- 
tion with the Presidency, It developes equally the fact, that 
John Sherman is very strong, and General Grant weak 
in New York, and leads to the conclusion that this sentiment, 
divided in its popular, political and business influences, is likely 
to find itself correspondingly reflected at Chicago. It is the 
crystallization and faithful reflection of this sentiment on the 
part of the Kepublican masses, that the League would have 
respected and enforced. It hopes, during the next four years, 
to see realized a degree of progress, providing for the assem- 
bling at all polling places in the American Union, early in the 
Presidential year, on the same day, under provisions and 
protection of law, all citizeils, each for himself declaring 
whom he prefers as his candidate for President. Urging the 
adoption of these principles, and insisting upon their just and 
equal application, the League has no fellowship or toleration 
for the vagaries of that order of political doctrinaires, who set 
themselves up as better judges of the fitness and qualification 
of a candidate for the Presidency, than are forty-nine-fiftieths 
of the Pepublican party. 

In the pursuit of its work, it neither has done nor will d(j 
aught to beget rivalries among the leaders, or create division or 
strife within the party, but it will insist upon the equal right of 
all Republicans to recognition and representation in primary, 
caucus and convention proceedings. The single fact — shame- 
ful and mortifying to the extremest degree, — that, of the 
sixty thousand Republicans in the city of New York, less 
than ten thousand of their names are found upon the association 
books of the so-called Republican party, stamps the impress of 
fraud upon the primary proceedings of a locality determining 
the recent outcome at Utica, and begetting the rapidly devel- 
oping revolt impending at Chicago. It is not surprising that 
a full score of delegates in New York State have, as we are 
informed, already made up their minds to respect the clearly 
expressed will of their immediate constituencies, and vote for 
emancipation from the thrall and fetters of conclave and com- 



11 

mittee, begetting unit rules and instructions — sought to arbi- 
trarily bind the delegate to dishonor his own convictions and 
defy the will of his immediate constituency. 

The spirit thus cropping out is to bring to the front a 
class of leaders comparatively unknown to the past of American 
politics ; and among them all, no one seems more eminent than 
the great commoner, James G. Blaine. In thus concluding, 
it may not be inappropriate to add, that, while a majority of this 
committee would prefer Secretary John Sherman for President, 
they would prove false to their professions of respect for the 
popular will, were they to attempt to cover up the fact, that 
Senator Blaine would seem, at the present, to be the choice of 
the masses of the party. 

That this feeling is the outgrowth of impulse, combined 
with an intelligent appreciation of services rendered to the 
people in a lifetime of work for their welfare, is probable. The 
value of the services of Secretary Sherman, however, more 
slowly appreciated, cannot fail to place him where, in a 
little while longer, no living American will have earned 
a more solid, deserved and permanent popularity. As it 
looks now, it cannot be long before a realization of the value 
of Secretary Sherman-s services will acquire an universality 
coming nearer to making him President by the common 
acclaim of the people, than anything realized during the 
last half century. This C(^mmittee gives no opinion as to the 
relative strength of Blaine or Sherman as candidates for the 
suifrages of the people ; but it does not hesitate to state, that 
the correspondence of the League demonstrates the fact that, 
failure to nominate one or the other of those statesmen 
at Chicago, would disappoint the hopes and expectations of 
fully three-fourths of the Eepublicans of Xew York. This 
committee is convinced that either Secretary Sherman or 
Senator Blaine would poll the entire Republican vote and 
carry the State. "Whether any new man, or "dark horse," 
so termed, could do this is a matter of doubt, to say the 
least. In one regard, the League Platform will not be found 
changing. While it will yield obedience to the exio;encies 
of war, or to any menace to the peace or safety of the 



12 

nation, and agrees with the sentiment so aptly illustrated by 
Lincoln, that it is not a good time or place to swap horses 
while crossing the stream, — it wall equally hold to the one- 
term principle as a rule which must govern the future of 
this Republic. That the one-term principle will ultimately 
prevail, and that the C(nistitution will be correspondingly 
amended, is but a question of time. Until then, antecedent 
as well as existing conditions should be made use of, leaving to 
the intelligence of the people the enforcement of that un- 
written law, more sacred than statutes, covenants or consti- 
tutions, which forbids an election for more than^two terms, of 
any one man to the Presidency. What the people would 
have, the League would have also ; applying this principle not 
merely to the Presidency, but equally to all nominations for 
elective offices. 

Convinced that the time has come for revolt, if need be, 
against a most despotic and degrading phase of political tyran- 
ny, that of caucus, conclave and committee, as developed 
through the machine, the League will know no truce or sus- 
pension of warfare, until unit rules are everywhere abrogated ; 
and instructions, other than such as are merely suggestive, 
as well as all other forms of tyranny, begotten by King 
Caucus, shall find burial in the grave of the dead past, 
nor, as ghosts of the dark ages stalking forth in the day- 
light of the nineteenth centuiy — survivors of feudalism and 
relics of barbarism — defy reason in morals, and decency in 
politics. 

Nor need any one doubt either the present power, or final 
triumph of the League. It has served the purposes of certain 
classes of men to decry, belittle and seem to scorn it, and one 
of the daily journals of New York City has lent the in- 
fluence of its columns to this end. The name of the paper 
need not be given, but suffice it to say that it is not the 
New York Tribune. It has seemed cunning also, not to say 
wise, by sapping, mining, fraud and deceit, to seek to turn 
aside the work of the League — aiming solely to upbuild, 
strengthen and perpetuate the Republican party, laying deep 
its foundations in the heart and -conscience of the people — 



13 

and to transform it into a new machine, to further the ends 
and advance the fortunes of individuals. 

All this has sia^nally failed. The League goes on with its 
work, aiming to secure to the people a government of the 
people, by the people, for the people. And so shall the 
harvest be. 

JOHN SWINBUENE, Albany. 

LEMON THOMPSON, Albany. 
A. N. COLE, Allegany. 
T. L. MINIER, Chemnng. 
C. W. GODARD, Kings. 
E. P. CONE, Kings. 
JOSEPH REEVE, Kings. 
W. M. WHITE, Livingston. 
APPLETON MORGAN, New York. 
J. H. TUCKER, New York. 
WM. LINDSAY, New York. 
NAPOLEON THOMPSON, New York. 
ROMYN HITCHCOCK, New York. 
GEO. F. CARMAN, Suffolk. 
ROBERT LOUGHRAN, Ulster. 

A. N. Cole, Chairman. 
E. P. Cone, Secretar'y. 



Reprinted from the NATIONAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, 
for April, 1880.— Copyrisrht. 



THE THIRD-TERM QUESTION. 



The Constitution of the United States was ratified by the 
State of New York at a convention held at Poughkeepsie, the 
26th day of July, 1788. That convention was presided over 
by George Clinton, the first governor of the State. Among 
its most distinguished members were Alexander Plamilton, 
John Jay, Robert Tt. Livingston, James Clinton and Melano- 
thon Smith. 

There had been a sharp conflict in that convention as to 
whether the ratification should be absolute or conditional. A 
large majority of the delegates were, at first, in favor of only a 
conditional ratification, dependent upon the adoption of certain 
amendments proposed. Finally, however, news having come 
of the assent of IScw Hampshire, and only one State more being 
necessary to the adoption of the Constitution, it was decided 
to make the ratification unqualified ; but the resolution adopted 
stated that the Constitution was ratified by New York, in full 
confidence that the proposed amendments would be adopted. 
Among the amendments proposed by the State of New York 
was the following : ^ That no jperson shall he eligible to the 
office of President of the United States a third time.'''' * 

Opposition to a third term, then, is not a new thing in the 
State of New York. This amendment was never formally 
incorporated into the Constitution, but the principle embodied 
in it has ever since been acted upon. Up to this time, no 
person has been elected or voted for, for a third term, as 
President of the United States. 

A brief statement will present the historical facts bearing 
upon this subject : 

Washington was twice elected, but peremptorily refused 

* Vide Elliott's Debates, Vol. I, p. 365. 



2 

the use of his name as a candidate for a third term. It has 
been argued, by the recent advocates of third-termism, that 
his declension was not from any conviction of duty or regard 
to public interest, but was the result of purely selfish consid- 
erations, viz. : his desire for the peace and tranquillity of re- 
tirement. It must be conceded that the pomp and power of 
high station had little attraction for the Father of his Country. 
Personally, he doubtless preferred quiet and retirement, but 
he was always ready to sacrifice his own private interests 
to the public good ; and there is ample evidence that in this 
act of his life, by which he renounced the greatness and power 
of his high position, his ideas of public duty entirely coincided 
with his private inclinations. He desired to retire at the end 
of his first term, and in anticipation of this event he wrote a 
letter to James Madison, dated May 20th, 1792, in which ho 
expressed this wish and asked him to assist in the preparation 
of a suitable farewell address. The following is his language : 

" I desire that you would turn your thoughts to a valedictory 
address from me to the public, expressing, in plain and modest 
terms, that having been honored with the presidential chair, and 
to the best of my abilities contributed to the organization and 
administration of the government ; that having arrived at a period 
of life when the proper close of it in the shades of retirement 
becomes necessary and will be more pleasing to me ( and as the 
spirit of the government may render a rotation in the elective offices 
of it more congenial to the ideas the people have of liberty and 
safety), that I take my leave of them as a public man," etc.* 

In answer to this, Madison sent to Washington a draft of 
the proposed address, in which he endeavored to put the ideas 
of Washington, as conveyed to him orally as well as by the 
letter above referred to, in a clear and suitable form. In this 
draft we find the following language : 

" May I be allowed further to add, as a consideration far more 
important, that an early example of rotation in an office of so high 
and delicate a nature, may equally concur with the republican 
spirit of our Constitution, and the ideas of liberty and safety en- 
tertained by the people. 

Under these circumstances a return to my private station, 

* Vide the entire letter in Sparks' Life and Writins's of George Washington, 
Vol. XII, p. 382. o J ^ * 



according to the purpose with which I quitted it, is the part which 
duty as well as inclination assigns me."* 

It is true that this draft was never used, for the reason that 
Washington was prevailed upon to serve a second term. But 
it was retained hj Washington. It concurs in spirit with the 
language used in his owti letter to Madison. There is every 
reason to believe that it was fully approved by Washington. 
Near the close of his second term, when his farewell address 
was actually given to the public, this draft by Madison was 
sent by the president to Hamilton, that it might be recast and 
adapted to the changed circumstances then existing. It 
appears, therefore, that Washington was opposed to prolonging 
the presidential office beyond two terms. He thought that 
rotation in that office was in accordance with the spirit of the 
government and with popular ideas of liberty and safety. 

As John Adams was only elected for one term, the question 
of a third term, of course, did not and could not arise with 
him. The next incumbent of the presidential office was 
Thomas Jefferson. He had originally been opposed to making 
a president reeligible at all. His views on this question, how- 
ever, changed. In a letter to John Taylor, dated January 6th, 
1S()4, after his second election but before the expiration of his 
first term, he says : 

" My opinion originally was that the president of the United 
States should have been elected for seven years, and forever inel- 
igible afterwards. I have since become sensible that seven years 
is too long to become irremovable, and that there should be a 
possible way of withdrawing a man in midway who is doing 
wrong. The service for eight years, with the power to remove at 
the end of the first four, comes nearly to my principle, as corrected 
by experience, and it is in adherence to that that I determine to 
withdraw at the end of my second term. The danger is that the 
indulgence and the attachments of the people will keep a man in 
the chair after he becomes a dotard ; that reelection through life, 
shall become habitual, and election for life follow that. General 
Washington set the example of voluntary retirement after eight 
years. I shall follow it, and a few more precedents will oppose 
the obstacle of habit to any one, after a while, who shall endeavor 
to extend his term. Perhaps it may beget a disposition to establish 
it by an amendment to the Constitution. I believe 1 am doing 
right, therefore, in pursuing my principle, f had determined 

♦Sparks' Life and Writitigs of George Washington, Vol. XII, p. 338. 



to declare my intention, but I have consented to be silent 
on the opinion of friends, who think it best not to put a continu- 
ance out of my power, in defiance of all circumstances. There 
is, however, but one circumstance which could engage my acqui- 
escence in another election, /. e., such a division about a successor 
as might bring in a monarchist. But that circumstance is im- 
possible. While, therefore, I shall make no formal declaration to the 
public of my purpose, I have freely let it be understood in private 
conversation. In this I am persuaded, yourself and my friends 
generally will approve of my views." * 

Again, upon the expiration of his second term, Jefferson 
was solicited to consent to a continuance in office. This was 
asked for bj the legislatures of various States. His answer 
was as follows : 

'* That I should lay down my charge at the proper period is as 
much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination 
to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Con- 
stitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for four 
years, will, in fact, become for life ; and history shows how easily 
that degenerates into an inheritance. Believing that a representa- 
tive government, responsible at short periods by election, is that 
which produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind, I feel 
it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle; 
and I should unwillingly be the person, who, disregarding sound 
precedent, set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the 
first example of prolongation beyond the second term of office." 

Jefferson's second term expired with the year 1808. In 
1812, after a retirement of four years, he was again solicited 
to permit himself to be elected president. But he did not 
consider the four years' interregnum as affecting in any way 
the anti-third term principle which he had avowed, and he again 
peremptorily declined ; and although his party continued in 
power up to the time of his death, no further attempt was 
made to restore him to the great position which duty had led 
him finally to resign eighteen years before he died. His suc- 
cessors — Madison and Monroe — each served for two terms, and 
each retired when the second term ended, not asking nor per- 
mitting their friends to ask for another nomination, during the 
many years of their subsequent retirement. 

In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected, as the nominee of the 

* Vide Randall's Life of fefferson. Vol. Ill, p. 132. 



5 

modern democratic i^arty, and was reelected in 1832. He 
was the idol of his party — a great military leader and popular 
favorite. But at the ending of his eight years' service, he volun- 
tarily retired to the peaceful shades of the Henuitage, where 
he remained an interested observer of the history and progress 
of his country, but not a candidate, active or passive, for a re- 
election, neitlier asking nor suffering his friends to ask the 
people again to put him in the foremost place of power and 
honor, until his death in 1845. Since his administration, 
Gen. Grant is the only president who has served two entire 
terms. 

From 1812 to 1875 there was no suggestion that any presi- 
dent should be reelected after his second term. 

In 1875 it was apparent that some of the friends of Gen. 
Grant desired to secure his election for a third term. When 
this disposition became manifest, it is not surprising, in view 
of the historical facts above detailed, that there was a very- 
general uprising against such an attempt. The attention of 
republican State conventions in that year was called to this 
question, and almost without exception they adopted resolutions 
expressing their disapproval of the movement. As early as 
May, the Pennsylvania republican convention announced as 
the sentiment of the republicans of that State : 

" That we declare and afifirm unqualified adherence to the un- 
written law of the republic, which wisely, and under the sanction 
of the most venerable of examples, limits the presidential service 
ol any citizen to two terms ; and we, the republicans of Penn- 
sylvania, in recognition of this law, are unalterably opposed to 
the election to the presidency of any person for a third term." 

The republican convention of the State of New York 
assembled in September, 1875. Among its resolutions, 
adopted by an overwhelming vote, was the following : 

" Recognizing as conclusive the president's public declaration 
that he is not a candidate for renomination, and with the sincerest 
gratitude for his patriotic services, we declare our unalterable 
opposition to the election of any president for a third term." 

State after State followed these examples ; and on the 15th 
day of December, 1875, on motion of Mr. Springer, of Illi- 
nois, the rules were suspended and the following resolution 



was passed, by the House of Representatives, by a vote of 
233 to 18 : 

" Resolved, That in the opinion of this House the precedent 
estabhshed by Washington and other presidents of the United 
States, in retiring from the presidential office after their second 
term, has become by universal concurrence, a part of our republi- 
can system of government, and that any departure from this 
time-honored custom would be unwise and fraught with peril to 
our free institutions." 

The third-term movement subsided, and Gen. Grant's 
name was not presented to the republican National Conven- 
tion in 1876. But the scheme was not given up. Its pro- 
moters were persevering and cunning. They resolved that, 
although they could not carry out their plan in 1876, they 
would only defer and not abandon it. Taking advantage of 
Gen. Grant's voyage around the world, of the cordial manner 
in which he was welcomed and entertained by kings and rulers 
in EurojDe and Asia, and of the enthusiasm which was 
naturally aroused by his return home early in the present 
year, they started what, in the slang language of the day, is 
termed a third-term " boom," fancying that all the circum- 
stances which have been mentioned, and others which tended 
to favor it, would make it irresistible and successful, notwith- 
standing the general public sentiment on the subject. 

The arguments used to promote this scheme and to over- 
come the popular feeling against a third term, were various 
and not altogether consistent. The friends of the Grant 
movement claim : 1. That the sentiment against a third term is 
unfounded in reason or principle ; 2. That if it has any foun- 
dation it applies only to the continuance of a president in office 
for more than two terms, and has no application as an objection 
to the reelection of a president after an interregnum of four 
years ; 3. That, even assuming the soundness of the objection 
to three terms as a general rule, and conceding its applica- 
bility to any election to the presidency of a person who has 
served two terms, there is a special emergency at this time 
outweighing these objections and requiring the nomination 
and election of Gen. Grant. In support of these views, three 
articles have appeared in the j)ages of the North Atnerican 



J 



Review whicli it is perhaps fair to consider as presenting the 
various grounds upon which Gen. Grant's reelection is 
advocated. These articles appeared, one in February written 
by Hon. Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin, one in March, by 
Hon. E. W. Stoughton, of ITew York, and one in the April 
number, by Hon. Geo. S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts. Let 
us take them up in their order : 

Mr. Howe's article deserves little comment or attention. 
Palpable falsification of history, foolish vituperation and 
fulsome flattery, garnished with choice bits of Scripture, are 
mingled in about equal projjortions in this most discreditable 
essay. The settled convictions of the j^eople are called by 
him " senseless clamor." The almost unanimous views of the 
House of Representatives are termed " a champion piece of 
charlatanry." The general apprehension of danger to free 
institutions from a long continuance of the presidential office, 
is spoken of as a '' soft spook," — whatever that may mean. 
Those who are opposed to a third term are said to l)e '' seduced 
from the worship of God to that of mere metallic calves." 
Mr. Howe states that the only criticism upon reehgibility 
made in the convention of New York, which ratified the United 
States Constitution, was made by Mr. Melancthon Smith, and 
that he found no one to second his idea in that body ; in the face 
of the fact that that convention unanimously proposed an 
amendment, that no person should be eligible for a third 
presidential term. He states that not even in North 
Carolina M'as a man to be found to object to the reeligibih'ty 
of the president, although in fact one of the amendments 
proposed by that State was, " That no person should be capa- 
ble of servmg as president more than eight in any term of 
sixteen years." He, by implication, charges Washington with 
cowardice, and gives as a reason for his retirement at the end 
of his second term, that he could not bear the gibes of his 
enemies, before which Grant never quailed. But his most 
atrocious calumny relates to Jefferson. Ignoring the fact that 
his views upon the subject of a third term were well kno^vn 
before his second term commenced, Mr. Howe directly charges 
that Jefferson's only reason for declining a third terra was that he 



8 

could not get it ; and accuses him of duplicity and deceit in 
giving expression to liis views, as he did, in reply to the legislat- 
ures of Vermont and other States, which had desired him to 
become a candidate. He asserts in the face of the evidence of 
history that the republican States of Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia had ''positively refused 
to join in the Jeiierson boom," before his declension was 
announced. The only evidence which he gives of this as- 
sertion is the fact that the legislatures of these States, at that 
time, more than a year before the expiration of Jefferson's 
second term, had not acted upon the subject. But in fact, not one 
of them had expressed itself as against Jefferson. The " positive 
refusal'' is a pure invention of Mr. Howe. Madison was 
Jefferson's secretary of State, and intimate political and 
personal friend. There was never any rivalry or hostility be- 
tween them. Jefferson was the founder and the leader and 
idol of the republican party. At his second election he had 
received one hundred and sixty-two of the one hundred and 
seventy-six votes cast — the only States voting against him being 
Connecticut and Delaware. The other States all voted unani- 
mously for Jefferson, except Maryland which gave him nine of 
her eleven votes. At the close of his second term he was equally 
popular with his party ; and no student of history, except Mr. 
Howe, has ever pretended that he could not have received a 
third nomination if he had sought to obtain it, or would have 
accepted it. 

Finding it necessary, in order to carry out the line of 
argument which he had adopted, Mr. Howe does not scruple to 
make Washington a coward and Jefferson a liar. He calls Gen. 
Grant " the foremost man of his age standing upon the mountam- 
tojD, uj^on whom the eager world has set the seal of primacy." 
He says "the world will make a mistake, if it shall turn 
from Jesus of Nazareth to follow Mr. Springer of Illinois," 
closing his remarkable diatribe with the following peroration : 
"Paul taught the Hebrews that without sacrifice there was 
no remission of sins. Americans are taught that not even 
sacrifice will save a president from rebuke after eight years 
service, although he has been sinless." Precisely what is 



9 

meant by this last language it is quite difficult to judge. "We 
doubt if even Gen. Grant himself would claim to be 
'' sinless ;" although Mr, Howe found an apt disciple in an 
enthusiastic member of the late Utica Convention, who pro- 
claimed this " sinless" man " standing on the mountain top," 
as the " God of battles I" 

It is evident that Mr. Howe in his Scripture researches had 
overlooked the warning given by Paul to his sainted name- 
sake : " O, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy 
trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings." Charity might 
lead us to account for this astonishing exhibition by the 
surmise that he had made too personal an application of that 
other passage, in which Timothy is enjoined by Paul to 
"drink no longer water." For it would be humiliating to 
believe that a man capable of writing such stuff in his sober 
moments, ever occupied the high position of Senator of the 
United States, and confidential adviser of the president. ]^o 
opponent of a third term could desire any more effective 
means of cultivating the anti-third-term sentiment, than the 
general circulation of Mr. Howe's extraordinary article. 

Mr. Stoughton's article is in a different sj)irit. It is not 
chargeable with the folly or the falsity of Mr. Howe's pro- 
duction. 

Mr. Stoughton admits that there are doubtless worthy 
republicans who are opposed to the third term, and kindly says 
that he shall not sneer at nor ridicule such superstition, for the 
reason that he has known few men of strength of character or 
capacity, who did not nuree one of some kind. And he compares 
the opposition to a third term to the superstitions which 
influence some men to expect bad luck from seeing the new 
moon over the left shoulder, or to refuse to start a new 
enterprise on Fridaj. 

All opponents of the third-term movement must feel 
exceedingly grateful to Mr. Stoughton for his great amiability 
in letting them off so easily. When we come, however, to 
look at his arguments, we are not impressed with their 
strength. In alluding to the example of Washington, he says 
that his declension was upon purely personal grounds, and 



10 

not from motives of public policy. We have already shown 
in this article that this is a mistake, and that Washington 
retired at the end of his second term because, in his view, 
public policy, as well as his own personal inclinations, required 
the step. Mr. Stoughton thinks that the only substantial 
objection to the enjoyment of consecutive presidential terms 
by the same person, is that a president desiring a renomination 
might corruptly and wickedly use the power and influence of 
his great office to obtain it ; and Anally perpetuate his rule by 
methods hostile to the Constitution and destructive of his 
country's liberties. 

If that is the only objection to a third term, then it must 
be conceded that there is some force in his argument. But Mr. 
Stoughton is mistaken in saying that the only valid objection 
to a third term consists in the assumption that by his influence 
as president he may perpetuate his rule by renominations, 
as wiU be shown as we proceed. Perhaps it is not strange 
that the ex-minister to St. Petersburgh, said to be an ardent 
admirer of that " paternal government" which has produced 
such happy results in Russia, should on his return become dis- 
tinguished as an advocate of third-termism for America. 

Mr. Boutwell puts his argument upon a somewhat different 
basis from either Mr. Howe or Mr. Stoughton. He concedes 
that the examples of Washington and Jefferson and the tra- 
ditions of the fathers are against a third term. But, he says, 
the opinions of Washington and Jefferson are entitled to the 
highest consideration as opinions, and nothing more. He 
insists that there is a question now demanding attention of 
greater importance than the ancient tradition against a third 
term, viz. : " Shall this government be destroyed or subverted 
permanently by the usurpation of the minority ?" And he 
argues that the only sure way of answering this question in 
the negative is by the nomination and election of Gen. 
Grant. If Mr. Boutwell is right in his premises, w^e must con- 
cede that he is right in his conclusion. If the destruction and 
subvei-sion of our government can only be prevented by the 
election of Gen. Grant, we should all yield our objections to a 
third tenn, and unite in his support. But we must remember 



, 11 

doubt, estimates the G,-»nt^, • "■"' <"»''"iet. He no 
its merits i,e™;t His ol """f '"'"'^ -J""^ «« iigUf^ 

'h-e fa a„y suc/emlge"e;i"'|:'l^^'^™f'™«wl,etier 
tiere js, whether the best wit trf! .• .^?"*«'<'U «ays ; and if 

toe«st ontyin a, imagiraZnt of W^T^ "'" '" ''^'^^'^ 
office-hdde:^ under Gen. a.anr°*,,^'--2°»*^«" and other 
''■■n^nll be considered quife ' n "'""^''^' P"-°P°««<i by 
Penl. "J"-"^ "^appropriate for the imagined 

To one assertion of Mr Kn„t„ n 
an emphatic deniah He says <Tt "^ "^t« *° i-^terpose 
State of New York, appreeiSn^ tl /'P"''"'=''"« ^^ the 
"^d the importanc; TthTl^r" "^'r^^''^ "^ '^<^ «™3 
P"P-e to support Gen. GLHor"?; ™ '^'^'^'^'^ *'^«i'- 
£fpubhcans of the State of Xew Yorl. ' P'-esidency.- The 
For the pu,p„,,, ^f f„,,,^^, .;^ l^, have done no such thing, 
vention was caUed in tha S ' T"'""' ""= S'ate cof- 
fuan-, to elect delegates o tlf tCa"? ^^-^^-'--X in Pel 
^-^June. There could have bleu 7/^""™'^*'°° *» be held 
•mseasonable call, and that obiect w» T "''J'"'' ^o'' »»* an 
ate expression of the wi'U of the ^^^^ secure a deli ber- 
hut to prevent and defe^il f' '"r"''^"^ of New Tol- 
e convention was caPed 1 7^7 " ™e very fact that' 
authority as indicating the ' sob! -^ '^"P"™'' it of all 

.^o>-k republicans. What Ln * '''°°'' thought" of Kew 
>ng a State convention LT^''''°° "'" ''^ ^iven for cX 
attend a National Convention T '° ^*<'' delegaTes "" 
discus.sions of any vaCeT ^^1™' ' . ,^" a^g-nifnt and 
and discussions be contiuued Z7nlC ' ^^'^ ''^"'^-^ 
decision arrives ; But the New T ^ "''""^"'7 «»« for 
coistirf'.' ";*^ f-"d„Ient iiTen'"';'"™"'- -as not 
-"etctd t^l tr " "'^'--^^ f^: Al^ 

-~ie.p,;i,4X:pef;::r^ 



12 

who were declared elected in violation of every rule of 
parliamentary law, were admitted to the floor of the convention. 
The same is said to be true of delegates from Brooklyn 
and from Buffalo. And in a convention so called and so 
packed, a resolution was passed by a bare majority of thirty- 
seven, favoring the nomination of Gen. Grant ! Not the re- 
publicans of !New York, Mr. Bout well, but the wire-pullei-s 
and the machine-managers of New York, have declared their 
purpose to support Gen. Grant for the presidency ! The rank 
-and file of the party, as you call them, in New York, have never 
expressed themselves in favor of Gen. Grant. Nor, if we 
may believe the evidence already obtained and constantly 
accumulating, it is true of the republicans of Pennsylvania. 
No fair expi-ession favorable to Grant's nomination has yet 
been had from any State in the Union. 

Having thus reviewed briefly the arguments of these three 
champions of a third term, let us consider the subject some- 
what upon its merits. 

The example of the fathers and the traditions of our history 
are all opposed to a third term. Are these examples and tra- 
ditions entirely without foundation in reason ? It is assumed by 
those who insist that the anti-third-term doctrine has no appli- 
cation to the present attempt to renominate Gen. Grant, that 
the only ground upon which indefinite reeligibility has been 
opposed, is that it enables a president, by the use of his 
patronage and power, to secure his own reelection. But it wall 
be seen by reference to the expressions of Jefferson, already 
quoted, that that is not the only objection made by him to such 
indefinite reeligibility. He says the danger is from the 
indulgence and attachments of the people, as well as from the 
undue influence of the president. It is not pretended that 
there is any special magic in the j^eriod of eight years. It was 
a favorite doctrine of the Henry Clay whigs, that no person 
should be elected president for more than one term. But the 
great point is, that there should be some limit to prevent it 
from becoming a life oflice ; and example and republican tra- 
dition have fixed that limit at two terms. It is essential to 
republican govei-nment that there should be no distinctively 



13 

reigning class 



JtJJgniiig class Wh 

and becoming a private citizen and ! 'f'"^'^^* ^^*« Private life 
testimonial to the solidit,^ of 11^' '"^^ "^^^ ^'^ ^^^ ^%Hest 

An ex-president is and shTn r^" ^^^^^^"tions. 
other citizen • nav in "^^ ^e' nothing more tU 

cu, naj m one sense ha cJ.^ 1 1 i , ^ ^^^an any 

be ...Klerstood that, Imvingp ° sessedt t •'': ^''^'' ^<"- =' ^'>°'>Jd 
of e|SM years, ),e U no lot.C aT, ^'^^ ^'o-""- i<"- » term 

P;-<K!ent who ha. had iorXlt'TT ^"^ *^ P"^'""''- A 
of tiat great office, especMvJh . '.P^'^'^go =""3 Po>re7 

^ as the great corns of nffl i, , ^ ®^*^^e army 
course of fm,-,. , ^ ^ oHice-holders io r, * • " ' 

-t he alt Sh^XfVeTr "^ '^"-^ ^^^^ 

^™,beeo™eapri™teem enl::,t "^''.^■^^'■^- -- of "e 
th" , ,^"""3 »" tife tim3 he has ht P"""*'"" "^ ""^'^ e^bt 
tie pubhc eve, as the honored In .^ "onspicuously before 
tie world. All the insZlt of Ih '' ""^ ^'•"""■^ "»«on o^ 
been exerted to gh-e him , u «'°^™' Cforerament hL 
newspaper organ hit , ^'^^''^ P'-o^-nence. A 7. . 
fM>eop,e,> l:, t„:tt* ^.''^ -- "f.-ei tm 
certamly had little to dlwlr? ' '' '^^ ^'•'^^ ? He h^ 
"P-d. I« it believed ttTt/'"^™»^ ^'"- bfete™ 
Japanese and Siamese, o with th ?"™ '"* ""-^ ChinesT 

omeo-holders appointed by him 7r ^"^ «''''''* bod v of the 
m eh, i, ^,^^^ ^^. ,,f^--'be men who ran thepolitieal 

hs '■''■'" *° ^"'"i^ of tho^e I^ P""-'^ '"•»"»i^ation is ' 

^- --->. -om'Sish?;^^,"-^^ ^^ a rea^on 

^ ' and, if It exists, 



14 

how will Gen. Grant's reelection meet it? Some say that 
Gen. Grant is the only republican who can be elected. 
On the contrary, it seems evident that no republican can 
be nominated, against whom such strong objections can be 
made, and who is so certain to fail of the support of a large 
portion of the party, as he. It is said that no other man, if 
elected, can be inaugurated. If this is time, then it is useless to 
try to nominate and elect Gen. Grant. If this is so, we may as 
well abandon the republican form of government at once and ac- 
cept the least objectionable despotism that can be obtained. But 
it is not so. The will of the people, expressed by constitutional 
methods, will be enforced. And it matters not who is the 
standard-bearer. For whoever is declared elected through the 
mode known to the Constitution and the laws of the land, Vvnll 
certainly be inaugurated as president on the fourth day of 
March, 1881. If this argument in favor of Gen. Grant means 
anything, it means that he will not allow himself to be declared 
defeated ; that he will decide in favor of his own election, and 
no other decision shall prevail. Are the third-term advocates 
prepared to sanction this construction of their favorite as- 
sertion ? 

There are very grave reasons why vast numbers of republi- 
cans believe that Gen. Grant should not be nominated. In doing 
this, they do not " rebuke " him, nor do they in any way dero- 
gate from his claims upon the gratitude of his country. That 
he sacriliced any more for his country than did many others, 
cannot be maintained. His fortunes were at a low ebb when the 
war commenced. During the war he did his duty like hundreds 
of thousands of others. To vast numbers of these, this dis- 
charge of duty brought death, or wounds, loss of fortune and 
loss of health. To Gen. Grant it brought glory, riches and 
power. For his efforts, his skill, his perseverance, his ability 
as a general, he' has received rewards such as have never been 
conferred by this country upon any other citizen. The American 
people are not to be charged with ingratitude, because they with- 
hold from him an honor which was not conferred upon Washing- 
ton or J efferson ; an honor the bestowal of which the majority 
of the American jjeople have ever believed to be incompatible 



15 

with the safety of free institutions. And it must be re- 
membered also that while the American people honor Gen. Grant 
for his military services, there is by no means thes ame una- 
nimity with reference to liis merits as President of the United 
States. Criticism of his administration is not confined, as Mr. 
Stought(jn in his article implies, to rebels and democrats ; nor 
will opposition to his election, if nominated for a third term, 
be so confined. To the scandals of his second administration 
it is unnecessary to do more than to allude. The mention of 
the names of Leet and Stocking, Belknap and Babcock will 
suffice. It is not necessary, nor would it be just, to charge 
Gen. Grant with complicity with the corruptions that prevailed 
from 1872 to 1876. But they did 2:)revail. They j)ervaded 
the men who were nearest to him. A peculiarity of Gen. 
Grant's character is, that he can see nothing wrong in those 
whom he deems his friends. It cannot be forgotten that Gen. 
Grant signed the law, which not only allowed members of Con- 
gress their notorious " salary grab,'' but also doubled his own 
salary. IS^or can it be forgotten that when Gen. Babcock was 
on trialin St. Louis, Gen. Grant, by an act the most arbitrary 
and unjustifiable that was ever performed by the elected ruler 
of a free people, peremptorily removed, during the trial, the 
counsel who was conducting the case for the Government with 
marked skill and vigor, for the alleged reason that he had made a 
remark which was construed as derogatory to Gen. Grant, per* 
sonally. For this constructive disrespect, denied by Mr. Hender- 
son, he was thus removed. The acquittal of Gen. Babcock fol- 
lowed, and followed, as many believe, as the result of this most 
unwarrantable interference by the president. This is mentioned 
as only one instance showing Gen. Grant's frequent utter disre- 
gard of republican principles. He was never trained in civil 
life. He was never taught to respect constitutional rights. 
His ideas of government are purely military. He did, and if 
reelected will again, administer the government of this country 
just as he would govern an army. 

The same corrupt men who formerly gathered about him 
will again surround him, if he shall be reelected. This is 
shown l)y the accounts given by his friend, John Russell 



16 

Toung, of his conversations during his voyage around the 
world. There was in Gen. Grant's cabinet certainly one man 
who was earnest and vigorous in the prosecution of offenders. 
That was Benjamin H. Bristow. By such earnestness and 
vigor he won the approval and applause of great numbers of 
his countrymen. His candidacy for the presidency was favored 
by many good and patriotic republicans. But we are told 
that Gen. Grant said in one of his later conversations (and 
these conversations have been published with his approval), 
that he would have supported for the presidency any candidate 
who might have been nominated by the Cincinnati convention 
except Mr. Bristow, whom he would never have supported.* 
Why was it that Gen. Grant resolved that he would not sup- 
port Gen. Bristow, if nominated? Can any reason be given, 
except that Gen. Bristow was an independent and efficient 
officer, and that in the vigor with which he prosecuted offend- 
ers against the law, he did not spare those who were connected 
with the president's military household, thereby incurring the 
president's displeasure ? Gen. Bristow was a republican. Gen. 
Bristow's whole offence was that he had impartially and 
vigorously done his duty. 

Argument in favor of Gen. Grant for a third term, based 
upon the idea that a " strong man " is needed, is dangerous 
and antagonistic to the whole spirit of our institutions. We 
want no strong man, if by that is meant one stronger than the 
Constitution and the laws. We want no man strong enough 
to disregard constitutional obligations ! And we have in this 
country and in the republican party no lack of men who are 
strong enough to enfoi'ce the Constitution and the laws. The 
idea that Gen. Grant is the only man who can execute the 
laws of this country is a slavish and an anti-republican idea : 

" When went there by an age, since the great flood, 
But it was famed with more than with one man ? 
When could they say till now, that talked of Rome, 
That her wide walls encompassed but one man ? " 

The arguments in favor of a third term and against the 
examples and instructions of the fathers on the subject, are all 

* Y'ldiQ Around the World with Gen. Grant, p 273. 



«nd patrio&m of the A me" • caat' f^i" *'"^ ""«"%»<=« 
done in the present on.eZZZZT'- ^h- can be best 
th.rd.te™ idea, and adhering^ L tTl""" *<^ °"-»an, 
fathers; heeding ti.e warnings^o hi t„, >"' "^ °" ^°''' 
] bertiesandonrrepnblicanfof™ *f •^' ™'' P'-^sernng our 

and^pern.aneney of the repXlie "'•'' *° *""« P'-^P^4 

j^-f f a:f rCo:::\!^ h'*r;-^« ^-^- of 

temtobeofeviltender>cy,hayefeut ,""'' P'«««ntial 
^Peak disparagingly of Gen gZTJ Tf''^ constrained to 
1^™ no disposition to de tact in ?'"' "'^'"'"''^"■''"on. They 
Tiey are as ready as any to exprert/'^'? '''<'" '^'^ f^-- 
tiat ,s admirable in his pL^T """ '>*'mi'-atioD for all 

achieven>ents. But lit; ^^ .f '"' -^'^''"S-'^ecl in w" 
from the usages of the VpuMi 1^? ''" "^^-^ '» depart 
of the wise and good men I ^-^--ogard the example 

t ey „e J :' ermin^t^S^t ^ J"^^'^-^-^ 

and ,f they see reasons against sT.b, ""^ Presented; 

them frankly and boldly. On the „ 1^ r'""' '° d<^»I^"-o 
andtheteaehing of Wafhingt"n tldT "''^ *X^<'^ *« --nple 
"nd Jackson, the declared convtHo??' ^"^"^™' Monroe 
ven .on which ratified the Federlp'r r '^^ ^^'^ ^ork con- ^ . 
of tl.e .-epublican State co, . Itln "o 1".'^' *^ '^-^P''--»°-^ 
nnannnous resolution of tC Ho }l^' ""** *''o almost 

*^^t :;■-.•. On the other thertnd'tl «f "■-»'»««« of 
^toijghton, Bontwell and Howe t T"''''' "^ M«^««-«- 
Conkhng, the He.. Henry W^dB f"''T ^"'"c™" ''nd 
packed conventions of PennsvK-» ?' *''" i"-«"'^*'"o and 

™ary, I8S0. ennsylvama and New York of Feb 

-■en"Jtt\tetv:*r ■^^\f-'-'^ %''t, let us follow then, 

;f'''.ndani„defini::r:,ro'-r ""«" ^^^^' '» f-^-' 
t 'e pnncple of the matter a'e wit, . *"' ''^ ^^^ '•o-'son and 



18 

the presei-vation of the republic, let us adhere to it, even though 
the new lights he disregarded. The maxim via antiqua, via 
tuta^ may not l)e of universal application, but it is worthy 
of some respect. There are doul)tles8 inconveniences resulting 
from the frequent changes incident to a " government of 
the people by the people and for the people." But unless 
we are prepared to admit that such a government " must perish 
forever from the earth," let us hold fast to the traditions of a 
free people, and bear the ills we have, rather than fly to others 
that we know not of. 

Matthew Hale. 



Reprinted from the NATIONAL QUARTERLY REYIEW, 
for April, 1880.— Copyright. 



The Republic and the Presidency. 



To tlie student of political ethics, numerous and what 
would appear radical defects will be found to exist in the 
Constitution of the American Union — defects which, failing 
of remedy through amendment, as provided by the instrument 
itself, can scarcely fail in time to beget revolution. In the 
original cast of the instrument, no feature stands out more 
prominently than the one of manifest jealousy among the 
States associated in the original compact. 

At the time of its formation much disparity existed in the 
status of the several States. Yirginia and Massachusetts led the 
van in the struggle for independence. Both were powerful and 
populous, yet yielded to a remarkable degree their preponder 
ance in the councils of the Union in deference to the demands 
of States like South Carolina, thus early nurturing the seeds 
of nullification. The only genuine democrat representing the 
section dominated over by the " cavaliers," and having an active 
voice in the formation of the Constitution, was Thomas Jeffer- 
son, always considered the father of American democracy. As 
regards territory embraced within the limits of the original 
thirteen States lying south of what has since been known as 
Mason and Dixon's line, the shadow of feudal despotism was early 
seen and increasingly developed, growing with the growth 
and strengthening with the strength of its slave basis, till the 
" Mother of Presidents " had become the nursery of feudalism 
and the hot-bed of despotism. It was left to the tory State 
of South Carolina to become the parent of disunion, and to 
the grand old commonwealth of Yirginia so far to degenerate, 
as to develop at the outbreak of the rebellion a single case 
only of adhesion to Jefferson ian democracy, namely, that of 
John M. Botts, living a whig, and dying a true democrat. 



It was in rock-bound and ragged Kew England, that tlie 
spirit of commonalty, unfettered hj feudal inliuences, took 
deep and firm rooting ; and we owe it to New England today 
that an enlightened federalism has developed into an intelligent 
democracy. 

To govern States as individuals are governed was the early 
ambition of the statesmen of the South. To combine states- 
men and States in the government of the Union, came to be 
the perfection of southern state-craft. That statesmanship 
such as this should have culminated in nullification, need not 
be wondered at. The local despot or petty tyrant in American 
democracy, or so-called republicanism, the mere schemer, not 
to say conspirator, seeking jDcrsonal advantage at any sacrifice 
of political integrity, is, so far from being worthy of popular 
support, the man most to be shunned as an enemy to the 
republic. The republic, indeed, has existed hitherto only in 
name. That it survived sedition and civil war is a marvel, 
but not so much a marvel as would be its triumph over the 
influences now seeking to control it. 

The result of feudalism within the Constitution, as well 
as of its development in political methods, produced a very 
great strain upon our political structure in 1876, when a 
disputed title to the presidency turned on a single electoral 
vote, and upon an adjudication outside of, and unknown 
to, the Constitution. It is a question by no means easy 
to answer, if the republic could endure another such ex- 
perience. Feudalism, so far from disappearing, was never 
more powerful than it is today in the south. Even in New 
York, Pennsylvania and UKnois it has strong hold, and seems 
preparing for a death graj^ple with forces resolved on realizing 
a true republic. Everywhere the people are demanding free, 
honest and peaceful elections, an honest count, and an honest 
declaration of results. 

So powerful are the influences at work in this direction, 
that the politicians are yielding to the inevita])le, and generally 
a^ree that such realizations are as desirable as necessarv. But 
the feudal chiefs of States and territories are giving evidence 
of having fallen back into their intrenchments, when they 



grapple with the source of political power. Caucus and eoh- 
ventioii inethods, the machinery of conclave and committee, 
not to say the machinations of conspirators, are the most power- 
ful agencies of both the democratic and republican parties. 
So reckless of consequences have some of these chiefs and their 
clansmen become, that they seem to care little for the repute 
of their parties, and still less for the interest and good name 
of their country. 

It is no part of the purpose of this article to point out 
or call by name the men determined to maintain personal 
domination, or take their chances in the ruins of the republic. 
That some of these believe they are not made of common 
clay or cast in the common mould, but were born to rule, and 
that the ordinary citizen should leave to them and their po- 
litical subjects and dependents the nomination of all candidates 
for office, it is charitable at least to presume. That they are, 
however, sowing the wind only to reap the whirlwind is certain- 
ly true. Included within their folds of political brigandage 
are hundreds and thousands, bound to them by ties of interest, 
who are loyal to their masters and chiefs so long as the commis- 
sary is well supplied. To feed an hundred thousand re- 
tainers in a country as great as this is comparatively an easy 
matter. Should the commissary become exhausted, however, 
or the consumers multiply, they might become troublesome 
to those to whom they look for sustenance. 

In the midst of all, the American people are rapidly finding 
out that the game as played by parties and politicians is 
one of method and madness combined, as devoid of patriotism 
and conscience as was ever one of cai'ds or faro ; and that when 
it comes to individuals asjsiring in certain instances to the most 
eminent positions in the so-called rejjublic, the one who can 
command the largest resources of men and money is the one 
most likely, as a rule, to succeed in his designs. 

This unprecedented condition of things, applicable 
to both the republican and democratic parties, makes it difficult 
to calculate, with any degree of assurance, what is likely to be 
the restdt at Chicago and Cincinnati. The ]National Con- 
vention of the republicans will l)e held in the former city on 



the 2d of June next. Seventeen days later, on the 19th of 
the same month, the democratic convention will assemble at 
Cincinnati. That either the one or the other of these con- 
ventions will be able to meet, deliberate and make nominations 
without sessions of unprecedented length, would scarcely seem 
possible. 

Much is heard about instructions by State conventions and 
the enforcement of unit rules. It is fundamental that, in all 
delegated conventions, each delegate shall have the right to 
cast his vote on all questions which may be considered, 
untrammelled by any instructions outside of the convention. 
He will, of course, be held morally accountable to his constitu- 
ency, should he misrepresent them on the main question which 
he was chosen to represent. He has the right to have his 
name called in open convention, and his vote recorded. In 
this way only can he be held accountable, and the record be 

made. 

In the approaching ISTational Kepublican Convention, the 
question whether the vote shall be cast by States or by indi- 
viduals will probably be decided at the outset , as also whether 
delegates chosen by district conventions shall be admitted, 
instead of delegates chosen by State conventions. The true 
position should, therefore, be understood in advance. A 
congressional district is the unit of representation for so much 
of the convention as corresponds with the organization of the 
House of Kepresentatives, and the State as compared with the 
United States Senate. Even these delegates, when more than 
o^ne represents a State or district, are not bound to act together. 
Where two or four are chosen, one cannot act without the 
authority of the convention nor cast the votes of absentees. 

The calling of two separate conventions by the democracy 
in New York, and the probable choice of two complete sets of 
delegates to Cincinnati, will only be supplemental to repubhcan 
proceedings already under way in Pennsylvania, where, repudi- 
ating the action of the Cameron convention of February, the 
ides of March are barely passed before the incensed masses of 
the party proceed by districts to make choice of new sets of 
delegates, doing so on what is termed the Crawford county 



plan. It is, therefore, more than probable that two full sets of 
delegates from Pennsylvania will present themselves for 
admission to seats in the Chicago convention. ISTor is contest 
probably to end here. 'New York is also likely, as regards 
several, if not all, of her districts, to make choice of new sets of 
delegates. 

By the admission of the Smyth delegation from Albany, 
the rejection of the Keeve delegation from Brooklyn, and the 
admission of persons having no claim at all to seats at Utica — 
to say nothing of the thousand and one other reasons for com- 
plaint touching the conduct of committees, caucuses, local and 
general conventions, causing the selection of a delegation, 
not as representatives of the party, but of individual 
leaders — the Utica delegation is left without support, other 
than the empty one of regularity. Should a contesting dele- 
gation, representing the majority of the party, and chosen by 
districts, present itself claiming seats at Chicago, the chances 
of each for admission would seem to be equal. What is true 
of Pennsylvania and New York may, and not unhkely will, 
occur in other States ; and thus, at both Chicago and Cincin- 
nati, contests without number, giving rise to delay and bad 
feeling, would seem to be inevitable. 

This condition of things cannot fail to place each of the 
candidates most prominently mentioned in such a position 
as to make the nomination of either on first ballot altogether 
improbable. 

Of ex-President Grant — up to the present, as regards the 
press, invariably first mentioned — this must prove impressively 
true. America's most widely famed hero has, despite all 
predictions to the contrary, allowed his friends to go forward 
and make him a candidate for a third term of the presidency. 
There are, probably, a full million of republicans, who, when 
he landed at San Francisco on return from his journey around 
the world, would have denied him no honor short of a crown, 
that sit soberly today questioning whether he is worthy of any 
honor at all. These are the men who disbelieved, at the outset, 
the statement that Gen. Grant was to come again before the 
people as a presidential candidate. They believed that his 



6 

fame as a soldier would make him unwilling to take the risk 
of entering the iield as a candidate for a third term. From 
the distant Orient came the intelligence that Gen. Grant had 
said in substance that under no circumstances would he again 
accept the presidency. Landing at San Francisco, and 
continuing his triumphal journey across his native land, amid 
salvos of artillery and the shouts of the multitude, his lips 
remained sealed, nor did he say a word or give a sign indica- 
• ting aught than a fixed determination to adhere to this wise 
and patriotic resolution. Up to the time he reached Philadel- 
phia everybody seemed his friend, nobody his enemy. Here 
it was, however, that he manifestly encouraged his favorites 
and friends to proceed with their work of once more making 
him President. Then it was, also, that the masses of honest, 
thoughtful and far-seeing republicans felt compelled to unite 
in an unyielding opposition to the establishment of a prece- 
dent so dangerous. 

Meantime, the wise, peaceful, and successful adminis- 
tration of President Hayes, coupled with numberless acts of 
folly on the part of a democratic Congress, had not merely 
encouraged republicans to believe that they would easily 
succeed in the coming presidential contest, but had caused the 
friends of various prominent Americans to array themselves 
on the side of this or that aspirant for presidential honors. 

John Sherman of Ohio, has, in the brief period of three 
years, as Secretary of the Treasury, done for American finan- 
ces what has never before been accomplished in the history 
of his country. He has not only brought about resumption,but 
succeeded in funding a large proportion of a vast national 
debt, saving millions annually in interest, and greatly light- 
ening the burdens of taxation. He has caused the revenues of 
the Government to be honestly and economically collected ; 
nor has a defaulter been found or a scandal prevailed any- 
where in his administration of the finances. It is said of 
him that he is cold, calculating, methodical, measured in all 
things and lacking in personal magnetism ; and that, while 
nearly everybody wants him for Secretary of the Treasury, 
next to nobody desires to see him made President. 



This, however, is a great mistake. While the masses 
of men are aroused by magnetism, there are large numbers 
of others, kings among men, born with the instincts and 
elements of success, who feel that the man who makes the 
most money, or, above all, enables themselves to make 
it, is the greatest of heroes. From the beginning of the 
world to the present, among princes and people alike, the 
measure of success has been counted in the accumulation of 
dollars and cents. It will not be so when the time comes that the 
republic is other than a myth, — developing itself as a fact, 
rather than a mere theory. Royalty in all ages has, as a rule, 
brought riches also. Empires, kingdoms, and republics as 
well, have had golden foundations. 

So far from having reached the point where money-making 
has begun to surfeit, there has never been a period in the world's 
history when the love of gain more widely prevailed than 
at the present. It infects all classes, and the richest men of 
the world are the ones most eager and anxious to accumulate 
wealth. More riches have been added to the coffers of the 
people in America, since John Sherman became head of the 
Treasury, than in the same period of time, since the republic 
had a beginning. As regards his candidacy, his recent decla- 
ration to his neighbors in Ohio, that, unless the republicans 
of his own State prefer him, and make that preference mani- 
fest by standing by him in substantial unanimity, he will 
not suffer his name to be used, is evidence of the temper 
of the man. Conscious of his own merits, and enabled, as he 
is, to point back to a period of nearly thirty years of public life 
without spot or blemish, coupled with recent achievements 
wherein no man living or dead has been enabled to more com- 
pletely demonstrate that the victories of peace are greater than 
those of war, he does only justice to himself, and honors man- 
hood, by this last declaration. 

Next in order is James G. Blaine, in whose Yery personality 
is a something akin to magic. That he is loved by tens of 
thousands and admired by milKons of his countrymen, cannot be 
denied. It is impossible for political opponents to dislike, 
while it is equally impossible for his party friends to do other- 



8 

wise than cleave to him, Ko man probably lives, who knows 
so many men personally. His face is one of ever-beamiiig sun- 
shine, and the grasp of his hand, when extended to a friend or 
an acquaintance, can never be forgotten. The writer's personal 
acquaintance with Mr. Blaine has fully convinced him that 
the senator has not only as great a mind, but as large a heart, 
as any man in America, — and teaches him to unite heartily 
with his countrymen in an effort to see the gallant senator 
from the Pine Tree State made chief magistrate of the nation. 
Whether it be during the year 1880, or four, or even 
eight years hence, it surely ought to be done as a something 
due to the instincts of the people, decreeing it as an event in 
the fitness of things. 

It has been urged that Mr. Blaine, as a politician, has 
remarkable powers ; and yet some assert that he does not 
possess statesmanship of the highest order. In reviewing Mr. 
Blaine's history, one point at least stands out in bold relief, 
evidencing his great power in controlling men, and managing 
delicate and complicated questions of State. The peaceful 
and just issue of the recent contest in Maine against one of 
the most audacious attempts ever made upon constitutional 
liberty, is certainly due largely to the wise, firm and skilful 
manner in which Mr. Blaine conducted the affair on behalf 
of the people. 

As member of the popular branch of Congress, having 
devolved upon him committee responsibilities of the weightiest 
character, as a leader in parliamentary law, as Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, — the most prominent of his prede- 
cessors failed to exhibit more varied and successful qualities. 
Since taking seat in the Senate, all agree that the leadership lies 
between him and Senator Conkling ; nor is the question yet 
determined to which of them that honor belongs. 

In conclusion, if Mr. Blaine has not developed the highest 
order of statesmanship in every field of politics in which he has 
been called to act, it would be diflicult to say who has done so. 
The aggregate conscience and intelligence of the American 
people can safely be trusted to determine the fitness 
of a man for the presidency. Taking this as a test, Mr. 



9 

Blaine's popularity would seem to give liim an equal chance, in 
the present campaign, with Secretary Sherman. 

There, too, are Messrs. Washbume, Edmunds, Evarts, 
Garfield, and Hayes, who would be candidates of eminent 
fitness, esjjecially the latter. In a recent conversation with a 
newspaper reporter, President Hayes is represented as pointing 
to a dark horse somewhere, not unlikely to carry oS. the prize 
at Chicago ; at the same time counting himself out as among 
possible candidates, and declaring his determination to adhere 
to the decision in his letter of acceptance, under no circum- 
stances to be a candidate for reelection. In view of one of 
those manifest defects in the Constitution, hinted at in the 
023ening of this article — the absence of an exj^ress provision, 
providing for one term only, and making the incumbent in- 
eligible to reelection — the position taken by President Hayes 
will, we are quite sure, do much to give him a name and fame 
in. the future of our country. Barely one thing, in the 
estimation of the writer of this article, in event of a dark horse 
being necessary, would be found in the way of Mr. Hayes' 
renomination at Chicago. His declination of a second term 
would go for nothing. He has not been too conciliatory or 
generous toward the south. His southern policy, so called, 
has proved a success. The calling of General Key to his 
cabinet, more bitterly complained of by the class of republi- 
cans denominated " Stalwarts " than any other act of his 
administration, has come to be regarded on all hands as 
one of eminent wisdom and foresight. The postmaster- 
general has developed into one of the most honored members 
of as able a cabinet as any since the foundation of the govern- 
ment. Not toward the south, then, or any portion of her 
people, has the president been too generous. It is toward 
the rancorous, bitter and malignant enemies of his adminis- 
tration in his own party at the north, notably in New York, 
that he has carried conciliation to a point where his real 
friends, who are, in fact, a majority in the State, have become 
disheai-tened, feeling that battling against machine methods is 
hopeless, and only to be paid for by political penalties too 
grievous to be borne. With all this, the possibihties sur- 



10 

rounding tlie necessities of a dark liorse may even yet force 
President Ilajes into the list of candidates to be voted for at 
Chicago. 

Washburne and Edmunds are, equally with Conkling, 
Cameron and Logan, reckoned as friends of Gen. Grant ; but 
whether this calculation is true as regards Senator Edmunds, 
would seem doubtful in view of the fact that he is strongly 
pressed by reform elements in the party. In any event, no 
recognized partisan or friend of the ex-president is nearly as 
strong as Gen. Grant himself ; and if he cannot himself be 
nominated, surely none of his friends will be suffered by the 
anti-Grant element in the party to receive the nomination. 
'No mention has been made of Hamilton Fish, whose name 
has perliaps more generally been mentioned than that of any 
other, in event of the nomination falling by accident to New 
York, for the reason that, to do so, would be to obscure 
mention of the names of others, quite as eminent and equally as 
liable to be nominated. William M. Evarts, Edwin D. 
Morgan, Reuben E. Fenton and William A. Wheeler have, 
equally with Governor Fish, their friends and admirers. As 
friends of the dead Seward, and as representatives of the princi- 
ples governing American politics during the decade antedating 
the slave-holder's rebellion, Messrs. Morgan, Evarts and 
Wheeler hold rank quite as eminent as does Governor Fish ; 
while Governor Fenton in turn represents the dead Greeley, 
and — though hesitating somewhat to speak and act out l:)oldly 
his convictions, more eminently than any one else represents 
the advance guard of republicanism in its war upon feudal 
authority ; in other words, the republicanism of the present, and 
the republic of the future. Governor Morgan could and would 
have been nominated at Cincinnati in 1876, had not the present 
executive of New York State, as the representative of Mr. 
Conkling, held out to the last against it, and, through influence 
with a majority of his associate delegates, prevented Mr. 
Morgan's nomination. Historical truth requires the statement 
that several of the delegates from Kew England, largely 
representing that section, outside of Maine, are understood 
to have waited on Mr. Cornell and persistently urged the 



11 

dropping of Mr. Conkling's name on the part of the Kew 
York delegation, and the agreement upon that of Gov. Morgan, 
coupled with the strongest assurance that, if this were done, 
nearly or quite all of the Bristow element, alike from Kentucky 
and Massachusetts — and the sections of the Union represented 
by the radicalism of the one, and the conservatism of the 
other, forming the golden mean of republicanism — would 
unite and make Gov. Morgan's nomination inevitable. 

At the time of this dictation on the part of a self-consti- 
tuted political satrap, holding seat in the jS^ational Convention 
not from authority on the part of the people, but through 
frauds as monstrous as those which gave the Smyth delegation 
from Albany seats in the recent convention at Utica — there 
is not a shadow of doubt that, could the question have been sub- 
mitted to a vote of the republicans of the Empire State, 
whether the great war governor, Edwin D. Morgan, or the 
brilliant senator and feudal chief, Koscoe Conkling, should be 
made their standard-bearer, the verdict would have proven 
fully three for Morgan to one for Conkling. A net-work of 
correspondence, at that time existing, and more fully developed 
since in the organization of the " Republican Reform League," 
covering the entire State and reaching every school district, 
clearly demonstrates these assertions to be true. It is no 
disrespect to President Hayes to say, that had Gov. Morgan's 
name been thus agreed upon, in the election which followed he 
would doubtless have carried New York, and probably Indiana 
and New Jersey, and thus the question of the presidency would 
have been settled without the necessity of the Electoral Com- 
mission. 

As regards Secretary Evarts, — such is the profundity of his 
legal abilities, the enlightenment of liis views, his radicalism 
in all that pertains to the rights of man, his conservatism 
in all things political, that it is too much to hope or expect 
that he would be made the presidential choice of the 
elements mainly to appear at Chicago. As the American 
people have but the crudest conceptions of what is re- 
quired to make a republic, so it is impressively true that 
delegations chosen as have l)een not only those of New York 



12 

and Pennsylvania, but of most of the other States thus 
far, are not tlic ones to bring forward such a man as Mr. 
Evarts for the presidency. The American premier, in short, 
represents rather the repubKc which is to be, than the one 
that is presumed to exist. With all this, the ways of Providence 
are past finding out, and nobody at this distance can foresee 
what may occur at Chicago. The American people, at least 
the reading and thinking portion of them, are just discovering 
that they are really represented nowhere, — the place-seekers, 
place-holders and schemers, everywhere. 

The revolution manifestly begun and well under way in 
Pennsylvania, is liable to continue to spread, UMtil the people, 
through their demands for a real republic, become the 
conquerors, and the politicians the vanquished. A call has 
been put in circulation, inviting anti-third-term republicans to 
a conference at Albany, on April 21st, at which time such 
action will be taken as may very probably beget a new 
republican State committee, provide for the holding of a 
new State convention, and the issuance of a call for con- 
gressional district conventions, to choose new delegates 
representing the masses rather than the " machine.'" The 
pressure of such a delegation at Chicago, finding itself per- 
chance unable to agree on any of the candidates outside 
the State, and urging the nomination of Secretary Evarts, 
Governor Morgan, Governor Fenton, Governor Fish, Vice- 
President Wheeler, or some other eminent New Yorker, could 
scarcely fail of producing a sensation hitherto unknown in 
American poHtics — convincing the feudal chiefs, at least, that 
the day of their political dictation has passed away forever. 

This brings us to the hst of prominent candidates in the 
ranks of the democracy. First on such list stands the name 
of Samuel J. Tilden, one of the most remarkable men ever 
known to American history, — a man possessing the arts and 
devices of an Aaron Burr, the legal ability of an Evarts, 
the fertility in resource of Jay Gould, and, above all, those 
qualities so admired by Talleyrand, whose hero was the man 
who could make the best use of language to conceal his ideas. 
Perhaps no man ever lived who knew better how to make 



13 

tlie greed and ambitions of his fellow men to serve liis purposes. 
The writer of this article has been studying Mr. Tilden's 
character since the memorable epoch of 1848, nor has 
yet been able to make up judgment touching the im- 
pulses which have actuated, and the motives which have 
controlled his career. That Mr. Tilden not merely be- 
lieves in democracy, but fancies himself its most eminent 
representative, charity, at least, would lead us to conclude. In 
fact, men have lived in all ages, not depraved or bad r.t heart, 
whose pliilosophy has nevertheless been that of the end 
justifying the means. There have been times when it Avould 
seem that Mi-. Tilden, more eminently than any other 
American, represents this phase of political philosophy. That 
his ends have been laudable is not improbable ; but that the 
means to which he has, as a rule, been in the habit of 
resorting, could scarcely have been worse, a large portion of 
the American people have come to believe. With all his 
great powers — those indeed of the magician in politics — 
his nomination at Cincinnati will be found barely among 
the possibilities. Upon this theory of possibilities, largely if 
not equally apj^hang to Gen. Grant, should the result at 
Chicago and Cincinnati be such as to find the one pitted 
against the other, human discernment is incapable of an 
intelligent judgment as regards the result in November. 
Already, in nearly every State, the elements of both of the 
hitherto existing parties are combining — crystallizing rather — 
into forms likely to result in new conventions of the 
people, the outgrowth of which can hardly fail of complete 
revolution. Democracy and republicanism, indeed, would be 
most likely to disappear as hitherto existing, and the voxj>ojjtili, 
vox Dei, heretofore so frequently quoted, would find realization 
in the inauguration— possibly before its day— of that republic 
which time is destined to bring to the American people. 

Of other candidates spoken of by the democrats, Messi-s. 
Seymour, Thurman, Bayard, Hancock, Hendricks, Da^dd 
Davis and others, so remote is the possibility of either being 
nommated, that nothing more than the mere mention of their 
names need he made. 



14 

Two names, and only two, have been mentioned, posses- 
sing in our judgment nmch weight as regards probabilities 
of nomination. Mr. Groesbeck of Ohio is perhaps the best 
specimen of Jeilersonian democracy among democrats of the 
present generation. In a recent interview, reported in the 
newspapers, it is stated that Mr. Groesbeck, when asked 
whether he would consent to accept the nomination, if tendered 
to him at Cincinnati, replied by saying that, while he was not 
a candidate for any office, if the representatives of the demo- 
cratic party were to make him their choice, he certainly should 
not incline to that sort of disagreement which would forbid 
their doing so. And yet he would say or do nothing to 
seek the nomination. Mr. Groesbeck is confessedly a man 
of great abilities, eminently patriotic and conservative, and 
perhaps no man in the country would hold a more even hand 
than he as chief magistrate of the nation. 

The other name is that of a gentleman possessing all the 
excellent qualities of Mr. Groesbeck, coupled with others 
giving him rank among the iirst men in the business and politics 
of the country. This is Hugh J. Jewett, President of the New 
York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, in no sense 
a dark horse — as has sometimes been suggested — but one 
whose name, growing steadily, extends today into all parts 
of the civilized world. His achievements in taking hold of 
the affairs of what seemed the most rotten and hopeless 
railroad corporation on this continent, and bringing it into 
complete solvency, have fixed upon him the eyes of the 
money -kings of the old and the new worlds. Nor is John 
Sherman, chief of financial successes, as Seci'etary of the 
Treasury, better known to the world's financiers than is 
Hugh J. Jewett. A solitary objection has been ui"ged against 
Mr. Jewett as a presidential candidate, viz. : that of his iden- 
tification witli t)ne of the greatest railways of the world, and 
his consequent supposed removal from sympathy with the 
laboring classes. It only needs, however, a look beneath 
the surface, to discover that to Hugh J. Jewett are the 
employes and operatives connected with our vast system 
of railways more indebted than to any other, for those 



15 

enlightened and progressive methods of management which are 
lifting them to the highest plane, as regards the dignities and 
profits of labor so ennobling every class of workingmen. 

Let no one presume that Mr. Jewett's name is other than 
that of the most formidable candidate yet mentioned in con- 
nection with the democratic nomination for the presidency. 
This it is, and thus is it regarded by the closest observers 
and most impartial judges of political probabilities, irrespective 
of party, throughout the country. Should he be nominated, 
which seems more than probable, and be found pitted against 
the ex-president, the friends of the latter, within a few weeks, 
at farthest, after the opening of the campaign, will be 
very likely to find themselves buried with their candidate 
beneath a political avalanche not yet so much as dreamed of 
by one in a thousand of even the more intelligent of Ameri- 
can politicians. As opposed to John Sherman or James G. 
Blaine, who are now universally recognized as dividing be- 
tween them the chances of receiving the nomination of the 
republican party, Mr. Jewett would alone, apparently, fail of 
success through want of coniidence in the party behind 
him, rather than through distrust of its nominee. Under 
any and all circumstances, the States of New York, New 
Jersey, Indiana, and perhaps one or two others of the north, 
may be set down as in doubt, should Mr. Jewett be made the 
democratic candidate. His record is such, as regards loyalty 
to the Union, the Constitution as it was, and the Constitution 
as it is, coupled with his acknowledged abilities as one of the 
very ablest men of the country, and possessing statesmanship 
of the highest order, as to render him in every respect unas- 
sailable. 

What manner of man, in fact, is the Hon. Hugh J. Jewett, 
may be learned from the following statements of Judge 
George F. Comstock of Syracuse : 

" I know Hugh J. Jewett well, and the movement to nominate 
him for President at Cincinnati seems to be gaining considerable 
prominence and it is not unlikely that it may succeed. The 
delegates from Ohio will, of course, give Mr. Thurman a compli 
mentary vote, and if it can be shown that Mr. Jewett can carry 
Ohio, they will then go for him and that will nominate him. 



\ 



16 

" Mr. Jewett is as honest a man as there is in the United States. 
He is a strong business man, and understands the wants and needs 
of the business men of the country thoroughly. He is safe on all 
subjects of finance and currency, and should he be nominated, I 
think no living man would get a stronger vote in the city of New 
York. Mr. Jewett has wonderful executive ability, and would 
call around him a cabinet composed of the very best men of the 
country. The resuscitation of the Erie Railway under the manage- 
ment of Mr. Jewett, was the greatest financial achievement this 
country has ever known. The business men of the country would 
have the utmost confidence in Mr. Jewett's administration, and 
the country would be perfectly safe under it. The character of 
the man is shown from the following anecdote : In 1861 he was 
nominated by the democrats for Governor of Ohio. He was 
a war democrat and would not accept the nomination on the 
platform laid down by the State convention, for the reason that it 
did not support the war. He wrote two letters to the State com- 
mittee, one declining the nomination for Governor on the platform 
of the convention, and the other accepting it on a platform of his 
own, which he enclosed, and which gave a vigorous support to the 
war. He informed the State committee that it might do as it 
pleased with the letters. The committee accepted Mr. Jewett's 
and he ran largely ahead of his ticket. The democrats in my 
opinion could not nominate for President a better or a safer 
candidate or a more available one." 

In conclusion, the presidential campaign of 1880 is destined, 
in any event, to prove a memorable one in the annals of 
American history. It will doubtless be the last involving the 
question whether the j^oliticians or the people shall rule. The 
new census will bring not only a new south, but equally a new 
north, east and west, not to say a new Union, and, in due 
time, unless broken in the struggles and strifes of the present 
year, a new and permanent republic ; which shall witness 
honest primaries, peaceful and honest elections, and at length, 
such amendments to the Constitution as the advancement and 
necessities of the nation require. 

A. In . Cole. 



The First Series of the National Quarterly Review, comprising 68 numbers, can be 
ad on application, at the office of publication. Price : in Paper, $i.oo per number, or $3.00 
er volume bound in half-turkey. 



The foUo-A'ing list comprises The Essays of the First Six Volumes of the Second Series: 

Second Series, Vol. I, No. I. — July^ 1S77. 
I. The See of Rome and Civil Allegiance. I IV. The Sclavonic Races of Europe. 

I. Natural and Supernatural. V. Past and Present of Life-insurance. 

L German Novels and Novelists. Part I. | VL The Travail of Democracy. 

Second Series, Vol. I, No. H. — October, 1877. 



I. The Civil and Militarj' Administration of General 

Ulysses S. Grant. 
[I. The Influence of Caste on Western Europe. 
[I. German Novels and Novelists. Part II. 



IV. Oriental Christianity. 
V. Harriet Martineau. 
VI. Odd Customs in Old Families. 



Second Series, Vol. II, No. III. — January, iSyS. 



I. The National Interest and the Labor Question. 
[I. The MjEcenas of Germany. 
[I. PhiloL.gy and the Origin of Speech. 
V. The Progress of Modern Astronomy. 



V. The Supernatural. 
VI. The Sheridans — a Rare Literary Family. 
VII. Rationale of the Death-Rate. 
VIII. John Lothrop Motley. 



Second Series, Vol. II, No. \y .—April, 1878. 



I. The Progress of Self-Government. 

II. Pre-historic Man in America. 

II. Art and Religion in Works of Fiction. Part I. 

V. The Alexandrian Museum. 



V. Career of M. Thiers. 
VI. Divine and Human Agency. 
VII. Old Irish Books and Manuscripts. 
VIII. Money and Currency 



I. China and the Chinese. 
II. The Ethics of Marriage and Divorce. 
II. Art and Religion in Works of Fiction. Part II. 
V. Russia's Present Position in Europe. 
V. The Lunar Theorj'. 



Seco.nd Series, Vol. Ill, No. Y.—July, 1S7S. 

VI. The Papacy of Pius IX. 
VII. Evoluti'in and Volition. 
VIII. The Knights Templars. 
IX. The Development of Art. Part I. 



Second Series, Vol. Ill, No. Y\.—Ociol>er, /8y8. 



I. Ethics of Civil Government. Part II. 
II. The Relation of Science to Scholastic Philosophy. 
II. Madame Dudevant. 

V. Condition and Prospects of the Southern States. 
Part I. 

Second Series, Vol. IV, 

I. Ideal Commonwealths. 
II. The Battle-field of England and Russia. 
II. Matter, Life and Mind? 
[V. War Indebtment : Its Limitations and Dangers. 

V. Voltaire and the French Revolution. 



V. Education and the Religious Sentiment. 

VI. Present Aspects of Socialism. 

VII. Libraries, Ancient and Modern. 

VIII. William CuUen Bryant. 

IX. Triple View of Divine and Human Agetzcy. 

No. VII. — January, iSjq. 

VI. The Ecclesiastical Question in Italy. 
VII. Condition and Prospects of the Southern States. 
Part II. 
VIII. The Development of Art. Part II. 
IX. Alzog's Church History. 



Second Series, Vol. IV, No. N\\\.— April, 1S7Q. 
I. Problems Physical and Metaphysical. I IV. The Poetry of Atheism. 

II. Jonathan Swift and His Times. V. France : Her Ninety Years of Probation. 

II. Temperance as a National Question. | VI. The Elements of National Finance. 

Second Series, Vol. V, No. \y..—July, iSyq. 



I. The Relation of Physical States to Mental De- 
rangement. 
II. Prince Bismaxk and German Unity. 
II. The Nature-Sentiment in Poetry. 
IV. The Present Phase of the Mormon Problem. 



V. The Ratio of Capital to Consumption. 
VI. The Development of Art. 
VII. Pernicic us Juvenile Literature. 
VIII. The Doctrine rif Perception. 
IX. The Sutro Tunnel. 



Second Series, Vol. V, No. y^.— October, iSyq. 



I. The Republic of Athens from Alcibiades to De- 
mosthenes. 
II. The Chinese Immigration Question. 
II. The Rationale of Panics. 
V. William Makepeace Thackeray. 



V. The Grain-Fields of Russia and America. 
VI. The Ethics of Utilitarianism. 
VII. The Development of Art. 
VIII. Judge Jcnes' History of New York. 



Second Series, Vol. VI, No. YA.—Jatiuary, iSSo. 



I. Rise and Fall of the Bonapartes. 
II. The Management of the Indians. 
II. The English Classics. 
IV. The Hygiene of Water. 

V. The Working-classes of Europe. 



VI. The Nebular Hypothesis. 
VII. Interstate Extradition. 
VIII. The New Eastern Question. 

IX. A Southerner's Estimate of the Life and Charac- 
ter of Stephen A. Douglas. 



Second Series, Vol. VI, No. y.11.— April, rSSo. 



I. The Clerical Question in France. 
II. Observations on the Physics and Metaphysics 

of Light. 
!II. Russia and Germany in the Event of a War. 
IV. The Scottish Poets. 



V. American Mines and Mining Interests. 
VI. The Third-Term Question. 
VII. The Railway Problem. 
VIII. Politico-Railway Problems and Theorists. 
IX. The Republic and the Presidency. 



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